In the very early part of this spring (1797), a bird of this species used to sit every morning on the top of some high elms close by my windows, and delight me with its charming song, attracted thither, probably, by some ripe ivy berries that grew near the place.

I have remarked something like the latter fact, for I remember, many years ago, seeing a pair of these birds fly up repeatedly and attack some larger bird, which I suppose disturbed their nest in my orchard, uttering at the same time violent shrieks. Since writing the above, I have seen more than once a pair of these birds attack some magpies that had disturbed their nest, with great violence and loud shrieks.-MARKWICK.

POULTRY.

Many creatures are endowed with a ready discernment to see what will turn to their own advantage and emolument, and often discover more sagacity than could be expected. Thus my neighbour's poultry watch for waggons loaded with wheat, and running after them, pick up a number of grains which are shaken from the sheaves by the agitation of the carriages. Thus, when my brother used to take down his gun to shoot sparrows, his cats would run out before him, to be ready to catch up the birds as they fell.

The earnest and early propensity of the Gallina to roost on high is very observable; and discovers a strong dread impressed on their spirits respecting vermin that may annoy them on the ground during the hours of darkness. Hence poultry, if left to themselves and not housed, will perch the winter through on yew-trees and fir-trees; turkeys and guinea fowls, heavy as they are, get up into apple-trees;

pheasants also in woods sleep on trees to avoid foxes ;* while pea-fowls climb to the tops of the highest trees round their owner's house for security, let the weather be ever so cold or blowing. Partridges, it is true, roost on the ground, not having the faculty of perching; but then the same fear prevails in their minds; for through apprehension from pole-cats and stoats, they never trust themselves to coverts, but nestle together in the midst of large fields, far removed from hedges and coppices, which they love to haunt in the day, and where at that season they can skulk more secure from the ravages of rapacious birds.

As to ducks and geese, their awkward splay web-feet forbid them to settle on trees; they therefore, in the hours of darkness and danger, betake themselves to their own element, the water, where, amidst large lakes and pools, like ships riding at anchor, they float the whole night long in peace and security.-WHITE.

Guinea fowls not only roost on high, but in hard weather resort, even in the daytime, to the very tops of the highest trees. Last winter, when the ground was covered with snow, I discovered all my guinea fowls, in the middle of the day, sitting on the highest boughs of some very tall elms, chattering and making a great clamour: I ordered them to be driven down lest they should be frozen to death in so elevated a situation, but this was not effected without much difficulty; they being very unwilling to quit their lofty abode, notwithstanding one of them had its feet so much frozen that we were obliged to kill it. I know not

* The pheasants run into equal danger when they roost in the trees; for, although they are secure from ground vermin, yet do they often fall victims to the poacher, who can see them plainly against the sky.

how to account for this, unless it was occasioned by their aversion to the snow on the ground, they being birds that come originally from a hot climate.

Notwithstanding the awkward splay web-feet (as Mr. White calls them) of the duck genus, some of the foreign species have the power of settling on the boughs of trees apparently with great ease; an instance of which I have seen in the Earl of Ashburnham's menagerie, where the summer duck, anas sponsa, flew up, and settled on the branch of an oak-tree in my presence: but whether any of them roost on trees in the night, we are not informed by any author that I am acquainted with. I suppose not, but that, like the rest of the genus, they sleep on the water, where the birds of this genus are not always perfectly secure, as will appear from the following circumstance which happened in this neighbourhood a few years since, as I was credibly informed. A female fox was found in the morning drowned in the same pond in which were several geese, and it was supposed that in the night the fox swam into the pond to devour the geese, but was attacked by the gander, which being most powerful in its own element, buffeted the fox with its wings about the head till it was drowned.-MARKWICK.

HEN PARTRIDGE.

A hen partridge came out of a ditch, and ran along shivering with her wings and crying out as if wounded and unable to get from us. While the dam acted this distress, the boy who attended me saw her brood, that was small and unable to fly, run for shelter into an old fox-earth under the bank. So wonderful a power is instinct.

WHITE.

It is not uncommon to see an old partridge feign itself wounded and run along on the ground fluttering and crying before either dog or man, to draw them away from its helpless unfledged young ones. I have seen it often, and once in particular I saw a remarkable instance of the old bird's solicitude to save its brood. As I was hunting a young pointer, the dog ran on a brood of very small partridges: the old bird cried, fluttered, and ran tumbling along just before the dog's nose till she had drawn him to a considerable distance, when she took wing, and flew still farther off, but not out of the field: on this the dog returned to me, near which place the young ones lay concealed in the grass, which the old bird no sooner perceived than she flew back again to us, settled just before the dog's nose again, and by rolling and tumbling about, drew off his attention from her young, and thus preserved her brood a second time. I have also seen, when a kite has been hovering over a covey of young partridges, the old birds fly up at the bird of prey, screaming and fighting with all their might to preserve their brood.-MARKWICK.

A HYBRID PHEASANT.

Lord Stawell sent me from the great lodge in the Holt a curious bird for my inspection. It was found by the spaniels of one of his keepers in a coppice, and shot on the wing. The shape, air, and habit of the bird, and the scarlet ring round the eyes, agreed well with the appearance of a cock pheasant; but then the head, and neck, and breast, and belly were of a glossy black and though it weighed three pounds three ounces and a-half,* the weight of a full-grown cock pheasant, yet there were no signs of

Hen pheasants usually weigh only two pounds ten ounces.

any spurs on the legs, as is usual with all grown cock pheasants, who have long ones. The legs and feet were naked of feathers, and therefore it could be nothing of the grouse kind. In the tail were no bending feathers such as cock pheasants usually have, and are characteristic of the sex. The tail was much shorter than the tail of a hen pheasant, and blunt and square at the end. The back, wing, feathers, and tail were all of a pale russet curiously streaked somewhat like the upper parts of a hen partridge. I returned it with my verdict, that it was probably a spurious or hybrid hen bird, bred between a cock pheasant and some domestic fowl. When I came to talk with the keeper who brought it, he told me that some pea-hens had been known last summer to haunt the coppices and coverts where this mule was found.

Mr. Elmer, of Farnham, the famous game painter, was employed to take an exact copy of this curious bird.

N.B.-It ought to be mentioned, that some good judges have imagined this bird to have been a stray grouse or blackcock; it is however to be observed, that Mr. W. remarks, that its legs and feet were naked, whereas those of the grouse are feathered to the toes.-WHITE.

Mr. Latham observes that "pea-hens, after they have done laying, sometimes assume the plumage of the male bird," and has given a figure of the male-feathered peahen now to be seen in the Leverian Museum; and M. Salerne remarks, that "the hen pheasant, when she has done laying and sitting, will get the plumage of the male." May not this hybrid pheasant (as Mr. White calls it) be a bird. of this kind that is, an old hen pheasant which has just begun to assume the plumage of the cock.-MARKWICK.